Thornbury Manufacturing Limited (TML) is currently gearing for full production of a product range that scooped success this month on the BBC TV Dragon’s Den programme.
The August 17 episode of the programme saw panellist Deborah Meaden invest a stake of £80,000 into Grip It Fixings in exchange for a 25% stake in the fledgling company.
19 year old Jordan Daykin of Grip It Fixings is one of the TV programme’s youngest winners: He presented a revolutionary new fixing for the building trade; primarily designed for use in plasterboard. Plasterboard installations have, to date, been notoriously difficult to drill for strong and adequate fixing and hanging solutions. The new Grip It Fixing provides a ready answer to the problem and has been gaining ground in UK DIY chains such as Wickes.
The association and product development work with Plymouth-based TML dates back to the Spring of 2010 when TML founder and director Dick Walsh began work on the design and manufacture of the moulding with the Daykin family. Jordan’s grandfather Stan Daykin is an inventor and experienced engineer and all three men were able to collaborate on bringing the new product to market.
Walsh recalls ‘that a good amount of fine-tuning and engineering – in both plastics and metals – was required in order to mould and machine the product into the solution that it is today.’
The Grip It Fixings plastics component is moulded in acetal and 100% recyclable. The mild steel zinc-coated back plates, catches and other componentry all required precision machining by TML in order to produce a lock-tight mechanism and thus fully guarantee the load-bearing performance of the new product.
Deborah Meaden tested this tough specification for herself on the August 17 TV programme by sitting in a chair suspended by chains from the Grip It Fixings.
‘As the Dragon’s Den TV programme showed,’ notes Walsh, ‘the performance of the product is truly ground breaking. We are now moulding a range of four Grip It Fixing sizes and are anticipating a steady market uplift from all corners of the building and DIY trades.’
Earlier this year TML needed to be ready with volume moulding production in order to match anticipated consumer demand. The company’s plastics machinery supplier Wittmann Battenfeld was on hand to deliver the company’s second HM 65 injection moulding machine of 2014. ‘All credit to Paul Dummer and the WIBA UK team,’ says Walsh. ‘Our new moulding machine was ready and waiting at the start line of this project.’ Walsh adds that ‘this is our fourth consecutive Battenfeld purchase and the second new Battenfeld machine purchased this year. The performance never lets us down and the service is always good; timely, knowledgeable and efficient. We look forward to the on-going partnership and more such new business arriving.’
The TML business is located in the UK’s South West in the Plymouth area and was founded nearly twenty years ago in order to grow a business in technical trade moulding. The company has grown from strength to strength since and now employs some 30 people operating on a site footprint of nearly 20,000 sq feet.
Plastics trade moulding; plastics-to-metal bonding and fixing and medical device manufacturing are all key components of the TML portfolio. All TML’s measuring equipment is calibrated and recorded and SPC and AQL checks are also carried out as requested by TML’s customers.
Energy saving measures and green initiatives are also a key part of TML’s successful modus operandi. The company has worked successfully with the Carbon Trust in commissioning equipment to reduce energy cost and a recent LED lighting programme has also reduced energy outgoings in that area by some 400%.